Steam: Big Picture Created 11 years ago2012-12-03 22:45:25 UTC by Jessie

Has anyone seen this yet?

http://store.steampowered.com/bigpicture/

It seems entirely like Valve's way of saying "screw consoles". Which I'm so okay with.

We need some TWHLers to try it out and report back! This could be damn interesting.

I've been using it since the Beta came out about 5 months ago. Bought myself an ASUS WAVI to transmit HDMI to my big tv in the lounge room so I never have to move the computer to play, I just plug in the HDMI cable and I've got my computer setting everything automatically.

I really like Big Picture as some games are just meant for the couch and controller. I played Tomb Raider Anniversary, Sideway, Super Meat Boy, Super Crate Box, Tony Hawk Pro Skater HD and Shank with great funness. I even played a bit of CS:GO but I still prefer my FPS with keyboard/mouse.

The interface is quite sleek when you get used to it but I keep a Keyboard and Mouse handy just in case the game crashes because otherwise you're stuck when the controller can't do anything.

The web browsing interface I found is difficult to use and while the text input method is interesting (not sure if it's unique though) it takes practice to get the hang of but could make quick typing once you get the knack of it.

You also need the graphics to actually play on an HDTV at full resolution. For most people this won't be an issue or you can just play on a smaller TV, but for the big screen enthusiasts you need a card that can handle 1080i (lucky for me my card was designed for that. Yay!)

Overall, while I don't use it a lot as my girlfriend disapproves of me using both the computer and tv at the same time, it is a really good idea and I like that Valve is trying to break into the console market without costing us anything.

Awesome

Interesting.

I can't try it out while I'm back home in Kingaroy, since the only computers we have here are running Windows XP. I won't be able to check it out until I go back to Brissy, probably around February.

Anyone else been giving it a go?

I checked it out. It's Steam, designed for your TV, using your controller, any USB controller. AKA any current-gen console, aftermarket console, or PC controller on the market right now. Great idea as far as I'm concerned.

My main monitor is a TV and I've got a controller plugged into my PC so it wasn't much of a change from Skyrim or racing games. I can see it being very useful to other people though. And all fully controller supporting games are on sale for the launch of it? Good deal for the people who will use it.

All-in-all I approve.

I don't have a fancy tv set to try it on, but I'm sure as hell happy about the sweet deals.

I like the interface, needs a bit of smoothing, but its good.
Don't own a controller to make use of it though.